Yin-Yang Commentaries, Sen. Ted Kennedy’s Gravesite, and Widow Vicki Filling Ted’s Senate Seat (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 30, 2009
Ted Kennedy, right, with one of my all-time favorite heroes, Ronald Reagan
Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy was laid to rest earlier today, and in all fairness to that handful of liberals who adored the man and who sometimes read this blog, I’ll conclude my posts on him with a snippet from a complimentary commentary. But to achieve yin-yang, the complementary opposites within a greater whole, I’ll also post one that is darker and less complimentary.
Balance. An attempt at achieving balance on a fiercely divided, controversial issue.
With this round-up of sorts, that’ll be it for my posts about the life and times of Sen. Ted Kennedy (I hope). Rest in peace, Senator.
Below the essays are two videos: the first, footage of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s gravesite, and the second, Sen. Orrin Hatch’s discussion to appoint Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, to fill Kennedy’s spot temporarily to “cast his votes” in the Senate.
From John Broder, New York Times:
He was a Rabelaisian figure in the Senate and in life, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair, his florid, oversize face, his booming Boston brogue, his powerful but pained stride. He was a celebrity, sometimes a self-parody, a hearty friend, an implacable foe, a man of large faith and large flaws, a melancholy character who persevered, drank deeply and sang loudly. He was a Kennedy…
…Kennedy family courtiers and many other Democrats believed he would eventually win the White House and redeem the promise of his older brothers. In 1980, he took on the president of his own party, Jimmy Carter, but fell short because of Chappaquiddick, a divided party and his own weaknesses as a candidate, including an inability to articulate why he sought the office.
But as that race ended in August at the Democratic National Convention in New York, Mr. Kennedy delivered his most memorable words, wrapping his dedication to party principles in the gauzy cloak of Camelot.
“For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end,” Mr. Kennedy said in the coda to a speech before a rapt audience at Madison Square Garden and on television. “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”
…He was a forceful and successful opponent of the confirmation of Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court. In a speech delivered within minutes of President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Mr. Bork in 1987, Mr. Kennedy made an attack that even friendly commentators called demagogic.
Mr. Bork’s “extremist view of the Constitution,” Mr. Kennedy said, meant that “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, and schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of Americans.” Some of Mr. Kennedy’s success as a legislator can be traced to the quality and loyalty of his staff, considered by his colleagues and outsiders alike to be the best on Capitol Hill.
From The Other McCain: Ted Kennedy Memorial Stand-Up Routine: One Man’s Well-Earned Legacy of Ridicule
Edward M. Kennedy became a laughingstock the old-fashioned way: He earned it…
The facts and the truth are that no “vicious postings on the Internet” could ever begin to describe what a loathsome excuse for a human being Ted Kennedy actually was. If Orrin Hatch feels obligated to say nice things about Ted, OK — Orrin’s a politician and, as Mencken said, the only way a journalist should ever look at a politician is down. And they don’t make them any lower than Ted…
…If there were any justice in this world, Teddy would have been drummed out of the Senate as a disgrace as soon as the facts were known about what happened at Chappaquiddick on July 19, 1969. If there were any justice in the world, Ted Kennedy would have gone to prison for vehicular manslaughter. Instead, because he was born with the right last name, he was allowed to cop a plea to a misdemeanor charge of ”leaving the scene of an accident.”
Oh, yeah, he left the scene, all right: While Mary Jo Kopechne was still alive, trapped inside the Oldsmobile that miserable drunken coward drove off the Dike Bridge. Facts, as John Adams said, are stubborn things…
…This is one of the most astonishing things about the reaction to Ted Kennedy’s death: The silence of the feminists, while cable TV news overflows with weepy tributes to the “Lion of the Senate.” Who can blame women like Tammy Bruce and Phyllis Chesler for renouncing the soi-disant “Women’s Movement,” which requires that its members ignore O.J.’s murder of his wife and the brutal misogyny of Sharia law?
Now the “Women’s Movement” expects its membership to remain respectfully silent during, or even compels them to join in, the apotheosis of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. (Who shares, along with that fine feminist hero Chris Dodd, credit for inventing the “waitress sandwich.”) And not one of these “Women’s Movement” leaders will say a word in rembrance of Mary Jo Kopechne?
Sen. Edward Kennedy’s gravesite was completed earlier today. He was laid to rest a short distance from his brothers, Pres. John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sen. Orrin Hatch: Vicki “Ought to Be Considered” for Senate Seat to Cast Ted’s “Final Votes”
Related reading:
Washington Post: He Remains the Man Many Love to Loathe
Hot Air: Massachusetts should appoint Kennedy widow, says … Orrin Hatch? and “One of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself”; Update: Audio added and Will there be a “Wellstone effect” in Kennedy remembrances? and It’s come to this: Dems task Teddy’s grandson with leading funeral prayer for ObamaCare
Tammy Bruce: Henry Rollins Asks “Where’s Mary Jo Kopechne’s Eulogy?”
Jules Crittenden: Dems In Mourning
Dan Gifford, Big Hollywood: Treasonous Teddy: Chappaquiddick Only the Beginning
Bookworm Room: Ted Kennedy — monster
Gateway Pundit: Kennedy’s Death a TV Ratings Flop
Michelle Malkin: The wretched excess begins
Frugal Café Blog Zone: “Audacious Child Exploitation Award”: Sleazy Dems Ramming ObamaCare at Kennedy’s Funeral (video) and Eulogy for a Privileged, Lucky Monster: Ted Kennedy’s Jokes about Chappaquiddick (video) and Death Coverage Snit: Michael Jackson vs. Ted Kennedy, from Fried Green al-Qaedas and Obligatory Ted Kennedy Motorcade Funeral Route Information… No Mr. Potato Head Balloon? and “KennedyCare” Photo of the Day and Last of the Brothers of Camelot: Edward Kennedy, Rest in Peace
Patterico’s Pontifications: Nauseating Ted Kennedy Tribute of the Day and Pelosi: Ted Kennedy Died? Great! That Ought to Help Us Pass Health Care! and The Tedward Lovefest: Candidate for Health Care Sainthood Has One Teensy, Weensy Little Blemish on His Health Care Record
The Powers That Be: The Future of Camelot: Kennedy Relative Gives Finger to Crowd and Chris Matthews is Wrong to Say Obama is the Last Kennedy Brother
Rosita the Prole: Mary Jo Kopechne to Ted Kennedy: “Welcome to the Afterlife.”
Stop The ACLU: Doggies Made All of Teddy’s Crimes Melt Away and Dems Exploit Child at Kennedy Funeral to Pray for Obamacare
Stuck On Stupid: The Kennedy Kids Pray To The Lord For ObamaCare (At Teddy’s Funeral)
Smart Girl Politics: Mary Jo can finally rest in peace.
Sister Toldjah: Use of Kennedy’s death for political advantage sinks to new lows
GayPatriot: How Kennedy Saved a Girl from Bad Soviet Medicine
Ztower: Biden: “I’d turn around and there’d be a specialist from Massachusetts, a Doc I never even asked for…literally…sitting in the room with me.” and Ted Kennedy’s use of the “power pass” began early and Ol’ Ted could sure tell the knee slappers. Why I remember the one he used to tell about Chappaquiddick…what a hoot!
Scared Monkeys: Separation of Church and State? The LEFT Uses Kennedy Grandson to Shill for Obamacare at Ted’s Funeral Service
RedState: What Would Jesus Do? Promote Liberal Policy, Using a Child at a Funeral, Natch!
Verum Serum: Ted Kennedy: Life of the Party*
The Substratum: Senator Edward Kennedy Dies And I Can’t Lie, The Champagne Will Be Flowing Tonight At My Place
silent E speaks: Kennedy’s Dying Wish???
The Anchoress, First Things: Ted Kennedy, Healthcare & Purgatory
Vets On The Watch: And So It Begins
The Underground Conservative: The Last Kennedy Brother
Pasadena Closet Conservative: R.I.P. SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY
Libertarian Humor: Anonymous Blogger on Ted Kennedy
WSJ Blog, Washington Wire: Kennedy’s Death Spurs Calls to Pass Health Legislation
Gathering of Eagles: NY: They Will Use Any Wretched Event To Try To Pass Obamacare
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Rush Was Right: Dems Call For “The Kennedy Memorial Health Bill”
Clinging to G & G: I opt for Kennedy-care
Bulletproof Diction: The Honorable Sir Edward Moore Kennedy Amendment
The Xtremist: Ted Kennedy’s Ghost Will Be Spotted Asking For ObamaCare
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